He first landed in the UAE year 1978 and mixed with the culture to a point where everybody living in Dubai knew who he was.. Gerard Raymond, owner of Gerard Café, created a melting pot destination, where people of different backgrounds come to sit and share news, stories, and everything in between.

Gerard explains in his story what it means to be a good chef, he says: “They say If you’re a good chef, you stick with your men in the kitchen, where nobody would know you. Sometimes you would go outside, but I personally choose not to do that.  I remove my hands from the oven and go outside to sit with people and talk. The benefit of this is that you sit in one table with more than five nationalities!”

He adds: “Communication is what I do here. Of course people make fun of me when I talk about myself for ten minutes, but you need to talk about your life after that. The connection created becomes that of friends, It’s your coffee shop and Gerard is your friend.